"No Toxic Waste" Car Rally and Protest

They came from Corbeil, Cochrane, Rouyan and Roulet. Over 500 people joined in a well coordinated rally that formed in the North at Cochrane and Kirkland Lake and in the South at New Liskeard and Notre Dame du Nord in Quebec. The parade of over 300 cars trucks and a bus was led by the newly tailored "Moose" who came decked out in the a full toxic waste suit. It was complete with a gas mask and air cylinders and rubber boots. Moose was planted on a trailer complete with barrels marked with dioxin and PCBs.

Why did over 500 people get together on a rainy June 16th Fathers Day? The region of Northern Ontario is again being target for a waste facility. This time it isn't 1 million tonnes of garbage in a open pit it is 500,000 tonnes of the most toxic waste know being shipped not from Canada but from the Unites States and Mexico on 30,000 trucks per year. These trucks will travel on Ontario highways through Ontario towns and according to Dr. Neil Carman put at risk the people who live along this "Toxic Artery" . The people are not only unhappy with the proposal to burn dioxin contaminated waste in what has been called a obsolete 1980's technology but very unhappy about the process that is underway to review the environmental issues surrounding the proposal. Those attending the rally learned that just recently, the Director of Approvals Branch of the Ministry of the Environment sent a letter to MPP David Ramsay stating that the MOE would not accept any evidence in the Environmental review that was related to the applicant's other incinerator. Bad news doesn't go away by closing your eyes to it. It is interesting to note that recently information received through freedom of information in Quebec details a series of operational problems including the release of toxins from emergency stacks on numerous occasions. Along with contaminated snow and extended releases lasting up to 14 minutes and the evidence released from the Quebec environment suggests that, like the thousands of incinerators that have been shut down in the US the Bennett plant in Quebec is not able to run with out emitting toxic material into the community. How much material was released is not known as there is no emissions recorder required on the emergency stack. The health impact on the community is unknown as no studies have been undertaken on the population where the dioxins would accumulate. The amount of the release would be large as it contaminated snow that once melted and drained into the soil, itself had to be incinerated.

Once Again the Government of Ontario Has Failed the People of Ontario

This isn't the first time this has happened. The Harris government gutted the Environmental Assessment Act once a continental model. Not only did the citizens lose almost all of their influence in the process, but the MOE moved from the position of a protector of the environment to that of an agent of the applicant. The MOE actively work to manipulate the process to further undermine the concerns of the public while furthering the interests of the applicant. The process lost its independence from political interference by giving the minister all rights formerly assigned to the EA. panel. In the end, the EA. Act has become a political tool used by self-serving and immoral politicians to promote projects that have financial gains for their friends against the interests of the public. In our case it is their profit before our lives as we stand to loose the quality of their air , water, livelihoods, as well as the health and the lives of people in the community.

This is not a decision by neglectful or distracted politicians; it is carefully manipulated, ruthless and sinister manipulation of a process by people who actively cover up their real intentions. This is done by changing laws to empower themselves to control decisions formerly made in hearings while at the same time actively misleading the public and the press about their intentions and motivations. Less you think this is merely a personal perspective a report demonstrates that the environmental assessment process in the province is a hollow shell of what it was and what it should be," notes Paul Muldoon, Executive Director of the Canadian Environmental Law Association. "The undermining of this important law was both premeditated and deliberate."

"Repeated examples show that the law as it is being implemented is failing Ontarians," notes Theresa McClenaghan, a CELA counsel with extensive environmental assessment experience. "The EA law has misled the public into believing that the environment is protected by environmental assessment when in fact it is not."

 The minister has used the EA. act to promote their own self interest often positioning a company financially to be able to offer the retiring politician money for life as a lucrative board member. In the Adams Mine application and as it turns out many of the investors were financial associates of the Premier. This level of corruption goes uncontested by the press because this government changes the legislation before it proceeds to fleece the public. This is much more insidious than some one that just breaks a law. This Ontario government changes laws to accommodate what would be criminal activities before they involved their lawyers. While within the letter of the law it is blatantabuse of power and a conflict of interest. This government manipulation effectively destroys the long established institutions of government that were designed specifically to protect the public from unscrupulous politicians. These actions are well beyond corruption and take a devious, self-serving and ruthless individuals to conceive and implement this new level of government corruption. The real question is how do we protect ourselves against a government who would sell out a population, tear down the protections developed over years and who would use the power of government, including the police and courts, to carry out their corrupt intentions. The answer is by standing together as a community and saying NO to the corruption and exposing their actions and their real intentions to public scrutiny as was done in the Adam Mine Protest. After watching this government operate with both the Adams Mine issue and the Toxic waste incineration, we have learned our government is our enemy, and we will fight them publicly to show the province the corruption that is being inflicted upon us.

Getting the Message Out

The crowd learned that the position of the MOE is now clear. They are supporting the application by Bennett. This was made clear by their rejection of any evidence in the Environmental Review on the Bennett St. Ambroise plant. For two years we have been told that the plant was running perfectly and that is was the same technology except as the KL one would be twice as big. The EA Branch is now excluding the operating historical information from the St. Ambroise plant. Recently through a freedom of information release in Quebec we have discovered that the plant has at least 8 reports of unknown amounts of toxic emissions some of them lasting 14 minutes. Now all of a sudden it is different equipment. The letter signed by the director of the Ministry of Environment is a self-serving lie.

That is not all. We are expecting the MOE after two years of studies at the location in Chaput Hughes will allow Bennett to change sites on the final submission of their documentation.

Corrupt politicians are driving the MOE, the beauacrats don't have enough strength to fight back and are going along with the scam by manipulating the process in favour of the promoter.

How do we stop them? The same way we did with the Adams's mine by enunciating the corruption we see in the process to as many people and in many ways as possible!!

Ambrose Raftis
Charlton, Ontario